I run a small creative agency mostly remote, small team, nothing wild. we were slammed last month so I posted a quick gig listing for parttime help. got a great applicant, solid portfolio, chill interview, hired them the same week.
About two weeks in, one of our main clients emails me saying, “hey, this is random but is [name] working with you?”
I said yeah, thinking it was no big deal. they reply: “that’s my ex. we had a really bad split. I’d prefer not to be in the same workspace.”
Its remote so technically they don’t have to interact but the energy immediately shifted. the new hire went quiet in meetings, the client got cagey and suddenly my Slack feels like a breakup battlefield.
I’ve got some money saved up so it’s not existential, but it’s the first time I’ve realized how fragile small business dynamics can be. one random personal connection can throw everything off balance.
I’m debating what’s more “professional” to quietly reassign the hire to other projects, or to just be honest with both and let them decide.
Never thought my biggest HR crisis would start with someone’s Tinder past.
I accidentally hired my own client’s ex without realizing it and it blew up in the weirdest way
byu/OptimalElectricity inEntrepreneur
Posted by OptimalElectricity
5 Comments
She doesn’t want to work with them. They don’t want to work with her. You don’t want to be awkwardly in between them. What’s most professional is listening to people and making their environments comfortable.
It’s a business decision for you, not a personal one. If you want to keep the hire, move them to different project(s).
“Hey (employee), after talking with (client) we’ve decided that we’re gonna move you off working on this account moving forward. This is a client request and it is not anything indicative of your performance or abilities. They requested this due to past relationships and don’t want to have any conflict of interest.”
That’s your response. Your new hire is a gig/part-time employee. If you need to move on, you can move on as well.
They are an expense, your client is the one that’s actually paying you.
I say this coming from the angle of someone who is in charge of marketing and sales for a company and is interviewing other marketing firms to take over things and one of them is the Firm that my wife works at. One of the questions in the interview the CEO asked point blank was if there was gonna be any conflict of interest or concerns if my wife was on our account.
Just be professional and very black-and-white.
I think it is pretty clear that letting them decide how you should run your business is very unprofessional. Choice seems fairly obvious to me, but good luck!
If they don’t have to directly interact then this seems wildly unprofessional. I’d prioritize retaining the client though and let the ex know it’s not personal from you but they’re off this project.
What a wild coincidence!